The Royal Naval Medical Stores for Service Afloat: a prospective quantitative study

The contents of the scale of Medical Stores for Service Afloat must provide adequate quantities of drugs to allow proper patient care in a variety of situations often remote from specialist support. The overall make up of the scale is difficult to envisage outside the context for which it was conceived. This study was designed to assess the accuracy of the make up of the scale in three RN ships over a six-month period during a detached deployment. During this time the usage of all consumable items was specifically recorded and the outcome subjected to rigorous analysis in relation to the present scale. The results of the study indicate that in the case of both HMS Ark Royal (AR) and the two smaller ships HMS Edinburgh and HMS Sirius (ES) the quantities of drugs in the majority of cases are in excess of requirements. Of the 290 (AR) and 266 (ES) individual drugs 68% and 40% respectively could safely be reduced by varying amounts, whereas only 7.6% and 4.9% respectively needed to be increased. Furthermore, when these changes are costed the savings that result are 7806 pounds for the AR scale and 1532 pounds for the ES scale. Extrapolation of these figures across the surface fleet produces an overall saving on the costs of drugs of over 87,000 pounds.